civil disobedience.docx

1、civil disobedienceOn the Duty of CivilDisobedienceby Henry David ThoreauI heartily accept the motto, That government is best which governsleast; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly andsystematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also Ibelieve-That government is bes

2、t which governs not at all; and whenmen are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which the will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing ar

3、my, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be

4、 abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.This American government-what is it but a tradi

5、tion, though a recentone, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the

6、less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed upon, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must al

7、l allow.Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by thealacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free.It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherentin the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and itw

8、ould have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimesgot in its way. For government is an expedient, by which men would fainsucceed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not

9、made of india-rubber, would never manage to bounce over obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischieviou

10、s persons who put obstructions on the railroads. But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at one no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that

11、will be one step toward obtaining it.After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in thehands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long periodcontinue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, norbecause this seems fairest to the minority, but beca

12、use they are physicallythe strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all casescan not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can therenot be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide rightand wrong, but conscience?-in which majorities decide only th

13、osequestions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizenever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to thelegislator? WHy has every man a conscience then? I think that weshould be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable tocultivate a respect fo

14、r the law, so much as for the right. The onlyobligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I thinkright. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but acorporation on conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.Law never made men a whit more just; a

15、nd, by means of their respect forit, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents on injustice. Acommon and natural result of an undue respect for the law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill

16、 and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart.They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they areconcerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are

17、they? Men atall? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of someunscrupulous man in power? Visit the Navy Yard, and behold a marine,such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can makea man with its black arts-a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out a

18、live and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniment, though it may be,Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, As his corse to therampart we hurried; Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot Oer thegrave where out hero was buried.The mass of men serve the

19、state thus, not as men mainly, but asmachines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia,jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no freeexercise whatever of the judgement or of the moral sense; but they putthemselves on a level with wood and earth and s

20、tones; and wooden mencan perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Suchcommand no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They havethe same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others-as most legislators, poli

21、ticians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders-serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as the rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few-as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men-serve the stat

22、e with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be clay, and stop a hole to keep the wind away, but leave that office to his dust at least:I am too high born

23、 to be propertied, To be a second at control, Oruseful serving-man and instrument To any sovereign state throughout theworld.He who gives himself entirely to his fellow men appears to themuseless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them inpronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.How

24、 does it become a man to behave toward the Americangovernment today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace beassociated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that politicalorganization as my government which is the slaves government also.All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, t

25、he right to refuseallegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or itsinefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such isnot the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution of75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because itt

26、axed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probablethat I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without them. Allmachines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good tocounter-balance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stirabout it. But whe

27、n the friction comes to have its machine, andoppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such amachine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of anation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and awhole country is unjustly overrun and conque

28、red by a foreign army, andsubjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men torebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is that factthat the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.Paley, a common authority with many on moral quest

29、ions, in hischapter on the Duty of Submission to Civil Government, resolves allcivil obligation into expediency; and he proceeds to say that so long asthe interest of the whole society requires it, that it, so long as theestablished government cannot be resisted or changed without publicinconvenienc

30、ey, it is the will of God. . .that the established government be obeyed-and no longer. This principle being admitted, the justice ofevery particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation of thequantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of theprobability and expense of redress

31、ing it on the other. Of this, he says,every man shall judge for himself. But Paley appears never to havecontemplated those cases to which the rule of expediency does not apply,in which a people, as well and an individual, must do justice, cost what itmay. If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a dr

32、owning man, I mustrestore it to him though I drown myself. This, according to Paley, wouldbe inconvenient. But he that would save his life, in such a case, shall loseit. This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico,though it cost them their existence as a people.In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but does anyone think thatMassachusetts does exactly what is right at the present crisis?A drab of stat, a cloth-o-silver slut, To have her tr